How to deal with credit-stealers at work

Posted on October 28, 2010
Filed Under Employment, Team, The Workplace | 1 Comment

Perhaps more frustrating than a teammate who refuses to pull his or her own weight is one who takes all the credit for something he or she had no part in creating. A credit-stealer might be compared to a cunning shark sitting behind a fishing vessel, waiting for a fisherman to hook and exhaust a fish only so it can swiftly and effortlessly snatch the caught fish for itself. Like the shark, a credit-stealer sustains his- or herself by profiting from the hard work and dedication of others, waiting for that moment in which he or she can easily seize the spotlight and commandeer your work, portraying it as his or her own. Recently a coworker brought up a friend who is presently dealing with a teammate unwilling to play by the unwritten code of workplace ethics, asking how he or she should respond to his or her teammate’s cunning. Read more

No thanks, I’ll eat at my desk

Posted on October 25, 2010
Filed Under Employment, Health | Leave a Comment

I have always been one to point out to my officemates that the idea of eating lunch at your desk is more fable than reality. Sure, you may swiftly return from the office kitchen to your desk with the intention of eating the hurriedly prepared meal of mediocrity you put together that morning, or the five-course feast you meticulously planned out and put together the night before. The reality is, however, that meal, once warm from being blasted with microwaves, will sit on your desk, cool and congeal, as you neglect it and opt only nibble at it, or perhaps take a few large chomps, as you continue your work. In two hours time, you will be more hungry than you were when lunch first began, and it will still be there, lying before you, no longer the sodium-enriched temptress it once was. Read more

Lindsay Olson’s tips for phone interviews

Posted on October 21, 2010
Filed Under Employment, Finding a Job, Interview | 1 Comment

Though I have discussed the many dos and don’ts of in-person interviewing, interviewing gaffes, and the art of the virtual interview, the less-dreaded phone interview has yet to receive attention on this blog. While the prospect of a phone interview might have an impact on one’s anxiety level, its impact is far less severe than the much-feared and talked about than the palm-sweat inducing in-person interview. Nevertheless, the informal phone interview is just as critical as an in-person interview insofar as it serves as the primary gateway to the highly coveted in-person interview. Read more

Interview questions: The good, the bad, and the improper

Posted on October 18, 2010
Filed Under Employment, Finding a Job, Interview | 1 Comment

Have you ever sat down to an interview and been asked something completely off the wall? Perhaps something about your race, ethnicity, or religion? How did you respond? Did you politely decline to answer? Did you indulge your interviewer’s curiosity? Did you make the interviewer aware that his or her line of questioning was discriminatory? Regardless of which avenue you decided to take, as one recent Wall Street Journal article acknowledges, such situations can be difficult to prepare for. In addition to this, inevitably, some job seekers will be unaware that such questions are prohibited (with some exceptions) by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So how should you respond? Read more

Becoming a team player, Part II

Posted on October 14, 2010
Filed Under Employment, Team | Leave a Comment

I once described the job search process as a competition between job seekers. An unceasing and indirect war of all against all, whereby competing job seekers find themselves constantly searching for a strategic upper hand. With the battlefront being the interview room, and the tools of war the resume and cover letter, this war does not stop once one of the multitudes of applicants emerges victorious with a job offer in hand. Rather, this scene, in which job seekers vie and compete for the same position, is merely a battle in what is a much larger war—a war which drives economic engines and captains of business. This larger war takes place within the workplace between individual employees, each attempting to outdo the other, hoping to propel themselves up to the next rung on the corporate latter.  It is not surprising that in such an environment the true meaning of “teamwork” can be lost.  Read more

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